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which so sweetens the cup of existence.-The
miseries produced by cruelty and apathy, are
to be seen, felt, and heard, in every quarter
of the globe. The animal creation is not ex-
empt from the cruelty of man, and men are
above measure cruel to each other; yet active
cruelty is not the whole of our guilt; indif-
ference to the sufferings of others goes to
make up the sum of human misery, and every
man who fails to exert his powers in the re-
lief of distress, whenever it comes within his
knowledge, contributes to the continuance of
116
those evils which the Persians attribute to an
evil principle, but which the better faith of
christians imputes to the wise dispensation of
providence. On the whole, tho' sensibility
may be affected by external circumstances,
it depends chiefly on our bodily temperament.

родо

EDUCATION.

Rectique cultus pectora roborant.

(side note 117-1391)

HOR.

My remarks on education, tho' they are not so numerous, nor so diffuse, as those of many modern writers, will not, I trust, be the less useful they are intended solely for practice, and are derived from experience; for in this I have one advantage over my predecessors; I have children of my own, which cannot be said by many authors on education, ancient or modern. I do not pretend to invent plausible theories, I give plain rules, whose merits may be easily tried. I am no lover of system, tho' I admire the custom of generalizing ideas into principles; but experience is, in my opinion, the only test of excellence. To form theorectical opinions is one thing, to give practical rules is another; the one is intended for those who reason more than they act, the other for those who act without reasoning; the one is intended for philosophers, the other for those

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212

who are no philosophers at all; the one is for the learned, the other for the world. To such I write, to the ignorant and uninformed. The objects EDUCATION is the best gift of parents Stuted

The difficulty of laying down general precepts.

to their children, and without it, all the ad-
vantages of fortune are only evils in disguise.
Its great objects are to inspire young people
with noble, elevated, and generous sentiments;
to teach them to despise every thing mean
and dishonest; to understand their true in-
terest, to regulate their passions, and to culti-
vate the affections of the heart. Whenever we
see a man misconduct himself in life, let us
ask how he was brought up, what care was
taken to form his mind? and nine times in
ten, it will be found that his errors arise from
a bad education. Learning is only a means of
education, tho' it is frequently mistaken for
the end, and without the dispositions above
mentioned, it is a useless ornament. Every
thing valuable in society depends on education,
or the early formation of the mind and habits.

The great difficulty in writing upon this
subject, is, to lay down precepts suited to all

ranks; indeed, it is almost impossible, for
there are so few things which can be common
to all, that more cannot be expected, than to
make the rules for forming the mind as general

рздо

as possible, and leave them to be applied by the discretion of parents in all ranks. The studies which are suited to a man of fortune, cannot be proper for a peasant, nor are the same virtues required of the two; yet sobriety, temperance, moderation, honesty, and œconomy, are equally suited to all ranks and characters. These are not relative, but positive virtues; they are equally the interest, and tend to promote the happiness of the rich and poor; they are. adapted to all times and seasons, and can never be out of place. The cultivation of the mind by those virtues which are common to all ranks, and by the pursuits which are adapted to different stations, is the great art of education, and without this is duly attended to, every thing else is either culpable or ridiculous.

There is one profession, viz. that of a soldier, War, a. whose institution and whole employment are so totally opposite to every thing here intend

ofession totally.

adverse to

ed, that I feel an ardent wish that it could the object,

be wholly banished from the world, yet, considering the nature of man, and his tendency to propagate beyond the power of the earth to afford him subsistence, it seems hardly probable that he will ever bring himself to prevent, rather than cut off a redundant population;

say.

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Education

at an

Early period

214

war, therefore, with most of its horrors, will still continue, and man will never be completely civilized.

The commencement of education ought to Sh commmebe much earlier than many parents imagine, for tho' the dispositions of the mind depend in some measure on the temperament of the body, yet they are much more affected by external objects than is generally supposed. To those who maintain the existence of innate ideas, and the irresistible power of natural disposition, I must here endeavour to reply, because their error is of considerable importance, so far as it relates to the task of forming the rising generation.-A child of five minutes old cannot be supposed to have many ideas, or if it has, they must lie dormant, and wait to be called forth by time, like the words in Munchausen's speaking trumpet, congealed by the frost. On this supposition the mind must be considered as a sort of separate essence imprisoned in the body, on whose growth or decay, its exertion depends during the time they are connected together; but if the mind is nothing more than a series of impressions received by the senses, and formed into ideas, then these ideas can have no existence before the child's birth. The capacity for receiving

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